CULINARY GOLD FOR 2012

July 27, 2005

London’s reputation as one of the culinary capitals of the world has been further enhanced today following the announcement that a team of catering students from the City’s Westminster Kingsway College has taken ‘gold’ and been named winner of the 2005 Nestlé Toque d’Or competition.

Toque d’Or is the UK’s most prestigious college catering competition and has helped launch the careers of many chefs including Anton Mosimann and Jamie Oliver, who attended Westminster Kingsway College as a young hopeful.

Confident that London would be successful in its bid to host the 2012 Olympics, the team from Westminster Kingsway College created its own Twenty 12 restaurant concept as it set out to impress the Toque d’Or judges.

A modern British restaurant encapsulating all that was great about London’s Olympic bid, Twenty 12 wowed both the judging panel and members of the public alike who had the chance to dine at the restaurant earlier this month.

Twenty 12 was one of four different restaurant concepts created by the college teams competing in the finals. The other finalists were The Sheffield College, Carlisle College and Thomas Danby College in Leeds.

The judges, including Brian Turner CBE and Paul Gayler of London’s exclusive Lanesborough Hotel, assessed each of the finalists on a range of criteria including their culinary and front of house skills, business acumen, ability to work as a team and their creativity and imagination.

They named Westminster Kingsway College the overall winner of the 2005 Nestlé Toque d’Or at an awards ceremony at London’s Dorchester Hotel earlier today.

Commenting on his team’s success, Bob Brown, lecturer at Westminster Kingsway College, said: “We are over the moon. Like London itself, we knew Twenty 12 had the potential to be a winner and thanks to the hard work, talent and dedication of the students we beat off stiff competition to take this coveted prize.

“There is no doubt that the Nestlé Toque d’Or is the most prestigious – not to mention the most challenging - competition out there for catering students. The team and I are absolutely overwhelmed by our success.

“I would like to pay tribute to each and every one of them – they have worked so hard for this and truly deserve to be winners. I would also like to thank the team from Nestlé FoodServices and David Mulcahy from Compass Group UK and Ireland who mentored the team throughout the finals. His support and advice has been invaluable.”

Grand Final chair of the judges Paul Gayler said: “Twenty 12 was a fantastic restaurant concept and we were delighted that the team were able to do it justice – their menu was inspired and they excelled in every aspect of running their own restaurant.

“I am confident that every member of the Westminster Kingsway team will go on to have a successful career in catering. The standard at this year’s finals was higher than ever which certainly bodes well for the future of our industry.

“Visitors to the 2012 Olympics in London will certainly have plenty to look forward to – not least the great food and restaurants that our capital city has to offer. And I am sure that some of the young stars of the Westminster Kingsway team will be running their own restaurants in the capital by 2012.”

The winning menu started with nettle soup with creamed duchesse potato and smoked eel beignet; and was followed by a main course of roast cutlet of Welsh lamb, confit rolled breast of lamb with burst cherry tomatoes, caramelised fennel and parsley vinaigrette. Dessert consisted of warm coffee and date pudding, and traditional Irish coffee with white chocolate and mandarin ice-cream; all representative of modern British cuisine.

As well as picking up £4000 worth of catering equipment for their college courtesy of Electrolux Foodservice Equipment & Nestlé Toque d’Or, the Westminster Kingsway College team can now look forward to taking part in the prestigious Toque d’Or study trip as part of their prize for winning the competition.

Passports in hand and bags packed – the winning team kick off their experience in London, working with the Capital’s leading chefs and maître d’hôtels.

Later this month, the team will head off to Charlotte, North Carolina to the internationally recognised and state-of the-art Johnson and Wales University. Here, students will have the opportunity to visit some of the USA’s finest restaurants and meet America’s leading chefs.

Notes to editors:

Each of the four teams competing in the finals of the Nestlé Toque d’Or were asked to incorporate products from Nestlé FoodServices’ Maggi, Chef and Nescafé* ranges into their starters, main courses and desserts.

* Nominated Nestlé and Nescafé Products

Nescafé

Nescafé Gold Blend

Nescafé Blend 37

Nescafé Alta Rica

Nescafé Cap Columbie

Nesquik

The Chef range of Fonds and Jus

Maggi Cold Mix Mash

The Maggi Range of Mediterranean Tomato Sauces

Nestlé Dessert Sauces

Nestlé Yorkie Bar Chocolate